Obama jobs death toll: Killing the drilling industry

Obama jobs death toll: Killing the drilling industry

You already knew that the election-season “lifting” of President Obama’s deepwater drilling moratorium was a sham announcement. Loathsome cowboy Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and radical eco-czar Carol Browner have lied through their teeth from day one about the rationale and impact of their job-killing policies not only on deepwater drilling, but shallow drilling, tourism, and the entire Gulf Coast economy.

More than two months after the Obama administration lifted its ban on drilling in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico, oil companies are still waiting for approval to drill the first new oil well there. Experts now expect the wait to continue until the second half of 2011, and perhaps into 2012.

…the delay is hurting big oil companies such as Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, which have billions of dollars in investments tied up in Gulf projects that are on hold and are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a day for rigs that aren’t allowed to drill. Smaller operators such as ATP Oil & Gas Corp., which have less flexibility to focus on projects in other regions, have been even harder hit.

The impact of the delays goes beyond the oil industry. The Gulf coast economy has been hit hard by the slowdown in drilling activity, especially because the oil spill also hurt the region’s fishing and tourism industries. The Obama administration in September estimated that 8,000 to 12,000 workers could lose their jobs temporarily as a result of the moratorium; some independent estimates have been much higher.

The slowdown also has long-term implications for U.S. oil production…

This is unconscionable.

As they return to Washington this week, House Republicans should be putting Salazar/Browner and the White House War on Jobs on the hot seat every chance they get.